LAUSR

Gray leaf spot (GLS), caused by the fungal pathogen Cercospora zeae-maydis, is one of the most serious foliar diseases of maize worldwide. In the present study, a population of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from a gray leaf spot–resistant inbred line Qi319 and a susceptible line Ye478 was used to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) for GLS resistance. For initial QTL analysis, genetic maps containing 199 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were constructed. One major QTL, qGLS1.02, was consistently detected between SSR markers umc2614 and bnlg1803, and explained 6.86–36.24% of the phenotypic variation in GLS resistance. The chromosome segment substitution lines harboring the qGLS1.02 from Qi319 were more resistant to GLS (P < 0.01). Using a recombinant-derived progeny test strategy, the interval containing qGLS1.02 was narrowed to ~ 314 kb according to the B73 (RefGen_v4 genome) including 12 candidate genes; only six of them have been annotated functionally.